Hard to believe there was a time when rock stars just made music. These days, artists don’t merely release CDs–they release concert documentaries, making-of concert documentaries, behind the making-of concert documentaries. And if that’s not enough–and in our culture of celebrity, how could it be?–a slew of artist-penned biographies have…

The summer ratings for local radio are in, proving once again that hip-hop is king of the D-FW airwaves. In first place is 104.5 FM, with a healthy lead over second-place 97.9 The Beat. Latin radio made a splash as well, with 94.1 FM, “Estéreo Latino,” coming in fifth, a…

Dallas has contributed more than its fair share of reality television stars. There’s American Idol’s Nikki McKibben, of course, and Survivor’s Colby Davidson. Every season of The Bachelor, or The Fake Bachelor, or The Littlest and Most Ridiculous Bachelor features some blonde from Dallas–pretty but plasticky, with big gloopy lipstick…

There are four well-known indicators that you are famous: being caught lip-synching on Saturday Night Live, “dating” Tom Cruise, hiring Johnny Cochrane as your lawyer and, last but not least, having a major product named after you. Bless his soul, Reverend Horton Heat has achieved No. 4. In January, Gretsch…

On November 1, 1994, the Old 97’s released Hitchhike to Rhome. Recorded at Dallas’ Crystal Clear Sound, Hitchhike was a solid little debut, a series of melodic misadventures about being young and stupid and full of somethin’ awful, whether that be heartbreak or Old Crow. The album quickly sold out…

It was late after the concert when it happened. The sell-out crowd at Wembley Stadium had thinned, and I was lingering near the entrance when someone bumped into me. “Oops, sorry, love,” said a distinctly British voice. “John Taylor!” I blurted nervously. Suddenly, I could taste my own heart pounding…

This week marks the two-year anniversary of Cindy Chaffin’s TexasGigs.com. Last week marked the second time her musician-friendly site has been voted by Observer readers as the city’s Best Blog. Which means it’s time to say a few words about Chaffin, surely one of the city’s most enthusiastic local music…

A few months ago, a colleague began ranting about the current administration. He was so mad, so fed up and frustrated that all the anger boiled into his face and fists. “So what are you gonna do about it?” I asked. “For one thing,” he said, “I’m gonna vote.” These…

The Falkon falls: In a passionate letter posted last week on MySpace.com, Falkon vocalist Mwanza Dover announced he will be moving to New York and that the band’s last show will be in December. “Well you did it Dallas. The Falkon is about to be dead,” the letter reads. “Thanks…

I listen to Elliott Smith often but almost always alone. Back when I did these sorts of things, I would write late into the night with Either/Or on repeat, a dwindling pack of cigarettes beside the computer. His songs became the wallpaper of my solitary 3 a.m. –songs told in…

For those of you who missed Wild On when they filmed their Dallas episode, do not worry: You have another chance to humiliate yourself on basic cable! Club TV USA, a show that will debut October 10 at 1 a.m. on E!, is filming every Friday in 10 clubs across…

The biggest buzz at the North Texas New Music Festival was the free parking. Concerned about Deep Ellum’s tanking reputation and business, the city–along with the Deep Ellum Bar and Restaurant Association–has implemented much-needed safety measures and switched off those merciless meters on nights and weekends (see Zac Crain’s “Deep…

Tom Waits is back, and he’s a little hard to love. The man capable of writing a ballad as fragile as a convict’s conscience just wants to make the sonic equivalent of a dirty bomb. The result is an album full of wicked foot-stompers, riddled with minor-key buzzmuffle and drenched…

Dallas rapper Big Aziz has never lost an MC battle, and this was no exception. When the AND1 Mixtape Tour hit the American Airlines Center and needed one more MC, he reluctantly signed up–and won the whole thing. Now Aziz is being flown to Miami, where he will face seven…

I’ve never been to the North Texas New Music Festival. Chances are, you know more about it than I do–whether it’s cool and worthwhile or just another buzzkill of bad sound and surly drunks. I can say that conceptually, I’m all for it. (Of course, conceptually, I’m all for going…

With its nine-minute songs and indulgent feedback, Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born is better seen as a concert album, full of the screaming musical tangents you expect from a live show. There’s a reason for that: Before laying down tracks, the band played the songs on tour, cracking them open…

Before Canadian power pop quartet Sloan took the stage Thursday night at Trees, vocalist/bassist Chris Murphy and vocalist/guitarist Patrick Pentland played an acoustic set outside the DART bus stop at Akard and Pacific streets. With only about a dozen onlookers, it was undoubtedly the smallest crowd on the band’s tour,…

When Austin City Limits premiered their little music festival, they swore up and down they’d move the date in the future. Fast forward two years, and many things have changed–the lineup grew legendary, the crowds exploded (this year boasted around 200,000 attendants), the ticket price shot up, but there we…

The press release went out midweek and scattered like cigarette ashes so that by late Friday afternoon everyone had heard the news. They wandered into the bar depressed and beaten, wondering what to do, what came next. “Where you gonna work, Jade?” someone called out to the bartender. She shrugged…

When Olivia Newton-John’s Sandra Dee traded her frilly collars and poodle skirts for screw-me stilettos in the final scene of 1978’s Grease, it marked two important cultural shifts: It set the bar entirely too high for women in hot pants; also, it marked the trajectory of every major female pop…

Unlike Nashville or Brooklyn, Dallas doesn’t have a distinctive musical style. Breakout bands from the 214 are a mishmash of genres with little in common besides an area code. If the city were to have a trademark sound, however, it might be something like the Sparrows, who built their rep…

Back when I taught high school, passing period was the most volatile time–the time when girls who seemed perfectly lovely in my English class ended up on the ground with their fists in someone’s hair, screaming about who poked whom with a loose-leaf binder. This actually happened once. It’s so…